We're celebrating the Asda colleagues going the extra mile to help customers

We’d like to say a big thank you to all our wonderful colleagues who are doing so much to help our customers and their local communities during the lockdown.

We’re proud to be supporting the BBC’s Big Night In – an evening celebrating the heroes across the country who are making a difference during these unprecedented times. The programme, supporting BBC Children In Need and Comic Relief, will highlight the work of a number of Asda colleagues.

There are hundreds of examples of our colleagues going the extra mile to help customers, NHS workers and carers and the local community during the coronavirus pandemic. Here are a few examples:

Everyone at our Coventry store is proud of our home shopping driver Dennis Neal, who raised the alarm when he spotted an elderly customer had had a nasty fall at home.

When Dennis called round to deliver the customer's shopping he immediately feared something was wrong when there was no answer. So he shouted through the letterbox to check the customer was OK and discovered the customer had fallen out of bed and couldn't get up. Dennis called for the police and an ambulance and kept talking to the customer through the letterbox until the emergency services arrived. He's been told the customer is making a good recovery.

Dennis said: "I usually deliver to this gentleman and take his shopping in for him so immediately knew something was wrong when he didn’t answer. I kept shouting to the customer through the letterbox to reassure him until ambulance and police arrived."

Store manager Jonathan Clements said: "Dennis has always been an outstanding driver and wouldn't think twice about doing something like this for someone. We are proud to have him as part of our team at Coventry and are equally proud of the rest of our home shopping team who are doing so much to serve customers at this time.”

Colleagues and customers at our Marple store teamed up to wish regular Asda customer Kathleen a very happy 98th birthday – with store manager Simon Lea delivering cards and gifts from people in the community.

Simon also went above and beyond to support his local community, personally delivering groceries to 30 different homes of our vulnerable and elderly customers.

He said: "When I discovered it was going to be Kathleen’s 98th birthday, I knew a celebration was in order. I was blown away by the response from our generous customers. These times are hard for us all, but it’s important we support everyone in the community, now more than ever.”

Simon has had help with deliveries by Alex Waddington, from Marple SK6 Spinner Cycling Club. Alex delivers food supplies on an electric bike which has been placed on loan to the community through a National Lottery grant.

Aishah from our Woking store made a 25-mile journey to help two self-isolating 89-year-old customers who needed shopping.

The store doesn't do home shopping but Aishah was quick to respond, driving 25 miles to deliver food to their homes. Amazing work Aishah – we're all really proud of you.

Rachel Webber, the community champion at our Gosport store, is self-isolating for 12 weeks with her 13-year-old daughter Abigail – but that's not stopped her from keeping busy helping the local community.

She said: “We've been making bags for Gosport War Memorial Hospital to put their scrubs in when they need to be washed. It’s great to feel a part of the community even when we can’t physically be out there.”

When Steve Horley, a Home Shopping driver at our Leamington Spa store, isn’t delivering to our online customers he's helping his elderly neighbours, who are in isolation, by picking up their essential shopping. They leave him a list and he pops in after work to grab what they need.

The store’s community champion Joanna Butler said: "So many of our colleagues are supporting their families, friends and neighbours in their free time. Thank you to them all and everyone else who's doing their bit to support those in need of a little extra help during the lockdown. Stay safe everyone.”

Tina, who works in the cash office in our Kingswood store in Hull, has been making these brilliant scrub bags for NHS workers in her spare time.

The store’s community champion Geoff Brown said: “We're all really proud of Tina – she's one of our Asda heroes.”

Colleagues at our Coleraine store are all really proud of our lovely security colleague Anne Storey, who stepped in to pay for the shopping of an NHS worker who realised she'd forgotten her purse when she went to pay.

Store manager Roy Warke said: "Great work by Anne for helping out a key worker in our community in their time of need."

Colleagues at lots of our stores have been making gift bags to give to NHS workers when they call in to do their shopping.

Here's Sam Will, the community champion at our Dundee Kirkton store, with some of the gift bags her store's been giving out:

Our home shopping colleagues – like Dan Tate from our South Shields store – are getting some wonderfully appreciative thank you messages from customers as they pull out the stops to get deliveries to as many people as possible during the lockdown.

Dan is regularly in work at 2am along with the rest of the home shopping team to manage a ten-fold increase in demand. He’s keeping in touch with some of his elderly and vulnerable customers, setting up a Facebook group to ensure they got what they needed.

He said: “It’s an uncertain time, so everybody needs a little help and consideration. We have lots of regular customers, so you build a rapport with them and want to look out for them. I just want to do the best I can all the time – and I know that’s true for the rest of the team here and at other stores too.” Read more here.

The Big Night In: Find out more about The Big Night In here.